ZcashZeal

Applicant background

My nym is @decentralistdan on twitter & the forum. I have been in the cybercoin space since 2016, as well as an engaged Zcash community member & ZEC accumulator since 2018. I am regularly on the various community calls, I am an unelected MGRC candidate; my candidacy post can be found on the community forum. I participated in the Gitcoin Grants program & received generous community support. I was also recently voted to be a volunteer forum moderator by the community. Finally & most relevant to this application is the launch of zcashzeal.org & the @zcashzeal Twitter handle.

Some encouraging initial Zcash Zeal stats since launch, 2 months (Nov. 19th - Jan. 19th) are below: On Twitter: 240 New Followers, 299.8K tweet impressions, 2.7% engagement rate, 964 Link Clicks, & 4.7K Video views, on the Website: 1190 Unique Visitors & 1986 Page Views, on Discord: 30 Members, & on Substack: 32 Signups

Outside of the crypto space, I have 6 years experience as a broadcast & audio/visual freelance technician, working on live & recorded events including the NFL Draft, NBA playoffs, 2016 Election Debates, & the 2020 Democratic Convention. My skills & roles for this job include, production coordinator, camera operator, audio assistant, & video operator.

Motivation and overview

“There exists a trilemma when maintaining a public chain protocol, one that requires a multitude of entities working separately in tandem to sustain the protocol itself. Protocol advancement, community stability and growth, as well as speculative and long term value creation, all play major roles in creating a funnel of participants into each of the various groups to maintain a public chain system." - Amentum

This quote resonates with me & helped to shape my view of the role ZcashZeal can play in this new era of the block reward distribution. I feel that ZcashZeal can be an entity that works in tandem with the ecosystem to focus on community stability & growth.

The most important high-level goal for ZcashZeal is to be a driving force for Zcash adoption & retention of users & builders. We would like to cultivate a strong community(Zeal) by coordinating the creation of community content. This would include a social media campaign, educational resources, & multimedia content(website, podcast, video tutorials, & newsletter) + launch of zcashmemes.com. Another high-level goal is the growth of shielded Zcash adoption, we plan to focus a lot of our time & resources specifically on the education & onboarding into the shielded Zcash/z2z ecosystem & launch shieldedzcash.com. Since the ZcashZeal launch we have published multiple how-to articles on our blog, created several video walkthroughs of using Zcash, & built up strong relationships with other community members(zealots) along the way. I feel these goals are directly connected to not only the ZF’s mission but also the ECC’s, & ultimately the community’s mission.

Technical approach

Our approach is to learn & build in public. My iPad is the most important tool in my workflow, as almost all content creation is done using it.

Execution risks

Some obstacles could be community pushback on not using open-source & more private tools for the infrastructure I use currently. Ultimately I would like to transition but it could be an obstacle. The project could also lack the community support needed to really thrive & signal boost. Another factor that could limit the success of our goals, would be not being able to get permission to use the Zcash trademark in our content. Contingency plans include just pushing through because ZcashZeal was started to scratch my itch & I will continue to support the ecosystem.

Downsides

All downsides listed seem possible but resolvable.

Evaluation plan

We will continue to monitor the stats listed in the top section of the proposal in addition to monitoring podcast stats after launch, amount of z2z memo engagement we receive & the feedback we get via emails & social channels.

Tasks and schedule

by April 1st: podcast launched + newsletter launched by Jan 1st: bi-weekly content has been released on average over the last 2 quarters (blog post, podcast episode, twitter thread, newsletter)

Budget and justification (UPDATED)

Q1(current) “kick starting” = $2916 10hours per week x $20/hour = $2400 $216 for ZcashZeal.org squarespace website infrastructure $300 for z2z on boarding, marketing, & incentives

Q2 (April 1st) = $2700 (podcast & newsletter launch) 10hours per week x $20/hour = $2400 $300 for z2z on boarding, marketing, & incentives

Q3 (July 1st) = $2700 10hours per week x $20/hour = $2400 $300 for z2z on boarding, marketing, & incentives

Q4 (October 1st): = $2700 10hours per week x $20/hour = $2400 $300 for z2z on boarding, marketing, & incentives Discuss & evaluate future funding w/ ZOMG

-Every Quarter check in on growth of all stats + bi-weekly content has been released on average